Forever Rei- Chapter 2
by Xenon1
Summary: Has Shinji found someone to fight for? 2nd Chapter is up!


All characters, places, etc. belong to Gainax, not me… as much as I wish they did…

Forever Rei

Chapter 2

**SLAP!**

Shinji rubbed his face; freshly red from the slap he had received from Rei. He stared down at her, as she walked down the escalator to the pilot locker rooms… and remembered the all too strange start of his day…

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"Hmm, these can't be Rei's… she doesn't wear glasses…" Shinji said to himself as he picked up the cracked pair of men's glasses sitting on Rei's dresser in her quite drab apartment. He really didn't want to be here, not in her apartment… not with the blood stained bandages strewn about the room and the dirty clothes and underwear thrown carelessly about. He wondered why Rei lived alone, in some decrepit apartment complex in the still under construction part of the city. Rei was a very strange girl indeed and Shinji couldn't understand her at all, but something about her still intrigued him. He remembered when he first saw her, covered in bandages in Unit 01's cage. He had since buried away the feelings he felt for her back then, but he still felt emotion for the enigmatic girl. "No one really does understand her… aside from him." Shinji thought, referring to his father. Thinking about this, he picked up the pair of glasses and put them on, looking around the room.

 At that moment, Rei decided to come out of the shower, clad in only a towel. Once she saw Shinji, wearing the commander's glasses, something overcame her and she rushed to him and ripped the glasses off his face. This proved to be quite the mistake, seeing as she was only wearing a towel and Shinji had very poor balance. Shinji was startled by the sudden reaction of Rei and stumbled over, his bag catching the drawer and pulling it out, and subsequently fell on top of Rei, who was on the ground and completely naked, due to the fact her towel had fallen off. 

"Uh..uh.." stammered Shinji, his hands covering her chest. He really didn't know what to do now, especially considering this girl had already attracted him when he first met her…

"Do you mind getting off?" spoke Rei, her calmness of voice strangely eerie.

Shinji yanked himself out of his still state and quickly got off of Rei, all the while apologizing profusely. Rei slowly got up and proceeded to get dressed as she asked him what he wanted. He explained that he was here to give her the new ID badge she needed, but before he could finish, Rei had already left…

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Shinji snapped back to the present, and proceeded on his way to the pilot locker rooms. As he was walking there, he noticed Rei heading to the test labs.

"Oh, right. She has an activation test today…"

As soon as Rei had left Shinji's field of vision, klaxons began to sound throughout the complex.

"An angel?! Now?! Damnit…"

--

"Eva 01 is ready for launch!"

"Launch Eva!" called Captain Katsuragi to the technicians. 

"A high energy reaction has been detected inside the angel!"

"What?!"

The next thing Misato heard was not the bridge officer's reply, but the blood-curdling scream of Shinji, as the Eva was hit by the 5th Angel's particle beam.

"SHINJI!"

--

Rei sat in the hospital room silently, watching the injured pilot being resituated.

"He looks at peace with himself like this." She thought to herself. "Much different from how he normally acts."

--

"I don't want to pilot it again. You haven't gone through the experiences I have yet!" Shinji told Rei, after she had briefed him on the upcoming operation, with Shinji acting as a sniper.

"So don't pilot it.  I will pilot Unit 01."

"Huh?"

"Dr.Akagi is prepared to rewrite the data files."

"What?"

"I must leave. They're waiting for me."

"But.. Rei…"

"Goodbye."

"But… wait…" Shinji called out, but it was too late, the other pilot had already left the room. "I can't let you pilot in my place…"

--

As the rest of the NERV staff began preparations for the upcoming battle against the 5th Angel, Shinji and Rei were sitting alongside their respective Evangelions, silently watching the impressive view of Tokyo-3 from the mountain. 

"Rei?" Shinji broke the silence.

"Yes?"

"Have you ever wondered why you pilot the Eva?"

"Yes."

"Why then?"

"Because… I have nothing but Eva…"

"What do you mean by that? There has to be somebody you hold important in your heart."

After a moment of silence, Rei responded. "We better get ready. Goodbye Shinji." She sat up and moved to her Eva.

"Rei… you didn't answer my question…"

--

"Transferring all power to the positron rifle!"

"The angel is preparing to fire!"

"No!" Ritsuko yelled.

"Rifle fully charged!"

"Fire!" Misato ordered Shinji.

"Engh!" grunted Shinji, as he pulled the trigger, right as the Angel fired its own weapon.

The next few seconds would have been a sight to see, but everyone had been evacuated so there was no one to see it aside from the NERV personnel. The two beams of the weapons bended light itself and went drastically off course, crashing behind the respective targets..

"Did we hit it?!" cried Misato.

"Negative! The Angel is preparing to fire again!"

"Not now! Look out Shinji!"

Shinji instinctively braced for impact, but the shock never came. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw the silhouette of Unit 00 using the shield to block the Angel's attack. "Rei!!! Argh! Hurry up you stupid thing!" referring to the rifle as it cooled.

"The shield won't last long!"

The next 10 seconds seemed like an eternity to Shinji, but as soon as the targets centered, he pulled the trigger. The rifle beam shot through the air and pierced the Angel, tearing completely through it. 

"Yes! We beat it!"

"Rei!" Shinji called out, as he saw her Eva hit the ground. He quickly pulled of the back plate of Unit 00's armor and pulled out her entry plug, which ejected the LCL inside of it. Shinji jumped out of his entry plug and ran down the arm of Unit 01 to reach Rei's plug. He twisted the door handle to gain access and found Rei laying in her seat.

"Rei! Say something! Are you alright?!"

Rei slowly moved her head and looked at the worried Shinji.

"Rei!"

"Shinji?"

"You must hold something dear to you, Rei. Don't ever say you don't…" he stammered, as he choked back tears.

"Why…why are you crying? I don't know what to do in this situation…" Rei responded.

"Why don't you just smile? For me?"

Rei thought about this for a moment, and smiled at Shinji. The only other person she has smiled for was the Commander, but this felt different to her. More fuffilling…

Shinji looked at Rei and smiled with her.

"She looks… she looks… like a real angel…" thought Shinji to himself…

--

Author's Notes: Okay. There we go. After 5 months of laying on my behind (I wrote the first chapter in June), I finally made Chapter 2(Or Chapter 1 if you think the first story I did was the prologue, which I did too. {grin}) of "Forever Rei".  I only worked a few days on this, so excuse me if it's not to your expectations. =) I worked a shorter time on the prologue and you guys seemed to like that. =) I know it follows the show very closely, and I'm trying to change that. Probably once Asuka comes in, I'll start to diverge more and develop the characters in what I want them to become. This isn't the final version of this chapter, and I'll probably change it around according to comments I receive from reviews.


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